Travel trailers and other mobile housings have heretofore been provided with colapsible tops that can be moved between raised and lowered positions. Various lift mechanisms have been installed to raise and lower the top. Such mechanisms have generally included a collapsible standard or jack at each of the four corners of the top and means for simultaneously actuating the jacks. Such prior mechanisms are disclosed in Steury patent No. 3,674,305, and U.S. application Ser. No. 609,780, filed Mar. 1, 1996, by the present inventors. In each of these prior mechanisms, a central actuator is connected to the corner jacks by flexible incompressible springs guided through inflexible and ridged steel conduits or tubes having one end ridgedly fixed to the central actuator and the opposite end ridgedly fixed to the frame of the trailer adjacent the jack to be actated. There are many different trailer manufacturers and each manufacturer has at least several different models with each such model requiring guide tubes of different lengths and different shapes. This necessitates maintaining an extensive and expensive inventory of different parts. Furthermore, because of different trailer frame constructions, difficulties are sometimes encountered in assembling and fitting the guide tubes between the actuator and the corner jacks.